2020 A Shit year with Great Music - My Favourite New Music of The Year

 While so much of 2020 has been shit for so many, in my assessment it has been a great year for new music.  A lot of my listening has been focussed on expanding my knowledge and appreciation of Hard Bop and the likes of Art Blakey, Lee Morgan and of course Miles.   However, I have still overspent, again, on new music. 

After almost 40 years of obsessive listening and understanding that there is no such a thing as a “best of” list in terms of music – as it is all just personal taste, I do like to reflect on what have been my favourite new records each year.

Once again this year’s list is topped by a magnificent local release.  Last year the honour went to Delaney Davidson and Barry Saunders Word Gets Around (I mention that again because it is just so good, deserves a mention and was one of my most played records this year as well).

This year the honour went to Reb Fountain’s self-titled masterpiece.  I bought a new New Zealand made turntable this year (a Wand 14-4).  I played it to the Simon, the man behind the Wand and he has since been using at his go to demo record when promoting his turntable and arm.

Early in lockdown I was blown away by two other releases that seemed to sum up or reflect the times so well.  Fiona Apple’s Fetch the Bolt Cutters and Lucinda Williams’  Good Souls Better Angels.  Both are career highlights in catalogues already filled with highlights.  

Shit Lucinda is angry!!! 

 

 

There were a few other great examples of American anger and desperation or frustration at their current divided states.  If a single song summed up those sentiments it would be Jim White’s Divided States of America off his more aggressive than usual Misfit’s Jubilee.  Jason Isbell and The Drive-By Truckers (who released two) released great records this year (although I am still waiting for the vinyl of their latest).  Chuck Prophet’s Get off the Stage from his Land that Time Forgot album was another example of venting frustration at the White House.  However, the angriest and most thoughtful of these was probably American Aquarium’s Lamentations.  An album that really takes a personal view on the combination of what it means to be southern and to have faith in the ability to rebuild. 

Over the last ten years I have listened to a lot of what many call Desert Blues.  Most of it comes from Mali and was represented first in my collection by Tinariwen.  At the time they were considered quite revolutionary blending western style with traditional approach.  That has now been taken further by the likes of Bombino, Songhoy Blues and Tamikrest.  The latter two released a couple of great albums in 2020 with Optimisme and Tamotait. 

Optimisme mixes not just blues but some healthy doses of Heavy Metal as well – really fun stuff as the cover indicates. Check out the opener Badala.

 

Who would predict that I would include a Taylor Swift album in a favourites list?   – have been paying more attention to her since Ryan Adams covered her excellent 1989 album.  I have always been a fan of great pop and it is good when a pop artist shows that they can not only do great pop but also show the breadth of their skills.  Her two “lockdown albums” are both worth checking out but my favourite now is still Folklore.

 

For anyone who still misses The Go-Betweens, you should checkout Melbourne’s Rolling Blackouts CF.  Their second album, Sideways to New Italy is an excellent sunny album that deserves repeat listens.  

 

 

 

 

 

When it comes to soul music I generally err towards the traditional country soul of Memphis and Northern Alabama. Two new soul albums that I have enjoyed a lot this year have been Lianne La Havas self-titled album.  I bought this in the middle year and thrashed it for a while (especially the opener Bittersweet) and had forgotten about it until I started to compile this list.  I sense a new period of thrashing coming.  

I am never sure where to classify Thundercat – at times soul, sometimes Jazz and the occasional collaboration with hip-hop artists. 

At any rate It Is What It Is is of course what it is! Which is of course fantastic!

 

In terms of the more traditional soul Markus King left his band behind him to make El Dorado a more laid-back solo album.  It took a while for the quality of the album to shine – but isn’t that the way with
the best music. 

I was surprised to see that Dan Penn, one of my favourite soul songwriters from the 60s was releasing another solo album at the tender age of 79.  While lacking any new standards Living on Mercy is a great addition to his canon.  And then Moments from This Theatre also got a first vinyl release. 

While Reb for me led the local music this year there were a lot of other excellent local releases.  The Beths released their second effort Jump Rope Gazers.  Like a lot of bands this year they were not able to do any more than a local support tour for it. 

I wonder how things may have been different if they had been able to capitalise on their growing base in North America.  I bought Dick Move’s excellent power punk album Chop on the strength of its cover alone (best cover of the year no doubt). 

 

 

 

However the band and album I was really taken with was Ingrid and the Ministers and their gentle, Dunedin sounding, Kill the Sights.  We currently seem to have an almost endless stream of talent coming through in New Zealand.  We all need to get out and support it to keep it going!

Honourable mentions must also go to the ever-consistent Darrell Watson and Tami Neilson.

 

 

The last few years has seen a wealth of great music made by women across all spectrums.  When I was growing up I had bugger all music by what we called female singers then.  This year about three quarters of the of the music that has made the most impact on me has been written by women.   Last year most best-of lists were dominated by women.  I did not connect with a lot of that, there was an ethereal quality to leaves me cold.   This year was different. I seemed to be all in.  Whether it was the “indie folk” of Phoebe Bridgers’ Punisher or Waxahatche’s St Cloud.  Both to me were major steps up from their earlier work and played often.

Then there was cluster of great more traditional country music by The Highwomen, Margo Price, Brandy Clarke and Shelby Lynne, all absolutely worth checking out. 

On any given day I could easily have added a few others to the list so honourable mentions also go out to Matt Berninger – Serpentine Prison,  Milly Tabak & The Miltones – Honest Woman, Emma Swift – Blonde on the Tracks,  Bob Dylan – Rough and Rowdy Ways and Larkin Poe – Self Made Man.

 

Favourites : The Cash Brothers - How Was Tomorrow - A rare "complete" album

Like a lot of my music in the 90's and 00's I was introduced to The Cash Brothers through an Uncut Sampler CD.  Nebraska was the track in question a homage to Springsteen's Nebraska album and the way some of us look to dark music when we are feeling dark ourselves. 

Apparently the brothers were reasonably popular individually in their home country of Canada and this album was their first joint effort. 

It's a lovely gentle album of brotherly harmonies possibly best exemplified on The Only One.

Nightshift Guru captures the ennui of working alone late at night in a supermarket. 

It is hard to pick individual tracks on what is a relatively rare thing - a complete album.

To date this is only available on CD but I would love to have it on vinyl. 

Old favourites - Lambchop - What another man spills

Sometimes genre classification can be confusing.  Because Lambchop, a large ensemble centering around Kurt Wagner come from Nashville and feature steel guitar they were immediately dubbed Alt Country.  However they regularly also had brass driving the music, in a laid back sot of way.    In that they must be one of the most alternative of alt country bands. 

I first heard them on compilation albums like Songs of the New West that I wrote about here.  And then I started with this album - What Another Man Spills.

This is an album that I don't play that often but when I do I always ask myself why not.  It has a great coherent feel even though it has such a wide style of music on it - but all given a nice gentle "lambchop feel".

Whether covering some unheralded soul classics like Curtis Mayfield's Give Me Your Love or Frederick Night's I've Been Lonely for So Long.  Even the closer, the instantly recognisable Theme From The Neil Miller Show (I have no idea what that show was but somehow knew the music immediately). 

While the covers are great there are also some classic originals as well like The Saturday Option, Shucks and The Magnificent Obsession.

They hit even more critical success with their follow up Nixon but thus is the album I return to. 

Damn Right I've Got the Blues : Kingfish

One of the highlights of my trip through the lower US in 2014 was the three days we spent in and around Clarksdale Mississippi.  I wrote about that earlier here. 

Something about that area keeps producing great blues music and the latest is Christone "Kingfish" Ingram.   He is a 21 year old blues prodigy whose grandmother swears he has so much soul that he must have "Been Here Before" .

I was introduced to him by a friend one night when we were surfing youtube for interesting new music.  I will admit that I was initially that taken with what I heard but I rechecked him again a week or two later and started to appreciate what he was doing

His kind of self titled debut Kingfish came out last year to almost universal rave reviews.  It reminds me a lot of Keb'Mos debut but with a little (lot) more grit.


Rather than just post songs from the album itself I thought I would post some of the better Youtube clips.  Here he is doing Screamin' Jay Hawkins' - I put a spell on you and Catfish Blues/Hey Joe

In the end you end up that you can just Believe These Blues

Damn Right I've Got The Blues - A collection of second hand finds from 2018

I went on quite a blues kick in 2018 - searched out quite a lot of blues from around the world on my travels.  This represents a good mix of the the second hand ones I picked up on my travels in 2018.


Luther Allison - Luther's Blues and Bad News is Coming.  While I had heard of Luther Allison I had
never heard him.  I stumbled across a lovely copy of Bad News is Coming in Christchurch.  The photo on the cover of Luther smoking a huge bong made buying it irresistible.  I was certainly pleased I did as it has some really nice aggressive and funky electric blues and it is now amongst my favourite blues albums.  Love the big reefer he is smoking on the cover as well. Really like Evil is Going On and Ragged and Dirty. So much so that I identified two other Allison records to hunt down and was lucky to find  Luther's Blues recently in near mint condition plus a live CD/DVD from the 70s.

Junior Wells - On Tap - I had not heard of this album by Junior Wells but when I spotted in a store in West Hollywood in almost perfect condition I thought it would be worth checking out.    An original pressing on the Chicago Delmark Label.  Junior Wells did not put out many bad albums.  I was pleased I did as it is certainly up there with his best.  I particularly enjoy his take on Keys to the Highway and   Mystery Train which he calls Train I Ride

A few years ago I read an article on the Rolling Stone Website about the Ten albums Rolling Stone liked in the 70's that we had never heard of.  After reading it - it became a bit of a mission to track them down and at least listen to them.   Johnny Shines' - Too Wet to Plow was one of those.  Shines actually played with Robert Johnson and there are a few interviews with him on line about that.  I had first heard Johnny on one of the excellent Chicago!The Blues!Today albums where he was decidedly electric in his approach.  This is more in the acoustic country blues mold but really loses nothing for that.



Bobby Rush - Rush Hour - Another of Rolling Stones recommended forgotten 70's Blues Albums and the second of my three finds from the list this year.   This is a bit funkier than the others (in fact it is really only his tasty blues guitar licks that really make it a blues album in any way.  It also has generous doses of Bobby's famous sense of show and humour - maybe best shown in I Can't Find My Keys and No Axe Ta Grind.





Memphis Slim - Blue Memphis - The final and favourite of  Rolling Stones' recommended 70's Blues Albums.  I found a copy in a shop in West Hollywood but they wanted $75 for it.  When I said it was too much the owner got all shitty with me and I left the shop with out it.  A week later I found a copy in Seattle for $22.50.

Apparently this was Memphis Slim's favourite of his 40+ albums and part of the reason was he felt the band was the best he had recorded with.  Not surprising really with John Paul Jones on Bass and Peter Green on guitar.

Otis Spann - The Biggest Thing Since Colossus.  I am an habitual browser of second hand blues bins at record stores.  I have a few that I am on the lookout for but I also just pick up interesting ones like this one.  It is a collaboration between the first incarnation of Fleetwood Mac and Chicago blues pianist Spann.   Like me Spann was a fan of Peter Green's lyrical guitar playing and that is what prompted the record.  At the time Fleetwood Mac recorded with a few other artists (like Memphis Slim above) but Spann's fans apparently did not really take to this noisy version of their master.

I love it - sloppy and noisy.

Harvey Mandel, Barry Goldberg and Charlie Musselwhite - Blues From Chicago -  What a great trio.  Harvey Mandel played with Canned Heat, tried out to replace Mick Taylor in The Stones (he is on a couple of tracks on Black and Blue) and produced a number weird and wonderful solo records.  Goldberg played with so many but had regular gigs and albums with Al Kooper and Mike Bloomfield (Check out KGB and Two Jews Blues) and is my favourite blues organist.  Musselwhite is of course Musselwhite.  This had been on my list for a year or so and almost skipped over it when I came across it in an antique and curio store in Hebden Bridge.

Guitar Star : Various Artists  I nearly missed this in the bins in a record store in Vancouver on a cold wet Sunday.  The store was right beside what was called The Amsterdam Cafe so it had a nice aroma.  Since falling in love with Boz Scaggs' Somebody Loan Me A Dime I have been on the lookout for the original - not that Boz credited it to Fenton Robinson (just like Page and Plant I suppose).  Originally recorded in 1967 it was only ever released on a single (or so I thought) and Robinson himself had to re-record it in 1974.  So when I saw that this album claimed to have the 67 recording and was only $10 it was an easy decision (although by that stage in the trip I was getting worried about baggage weight).  So despite the cheesy album title and cover I had to have it.   What does the rest of the album sound like - I still do not know as I have only played that track - I will get around to it.

Chicago Smoke Shop - Chicago Smoke Shop   One of the pleasures of being back in Wellington has been able to catch some of the excellent local blues.  Darren Watson is kind of the Godfather of the local blues scene and always puts on a good show.  This year he reconvened his first band Chicago Smokeshop after a 25 year absence.  It was nice to catch them at both of their reunion gigs, first in Nelson and then again in the Botanics later in January.  So I was very pleased when I managed to find this.  For Wellington Blues fans you may remember  Mind on My Sleeve or Sugar Coated Love.





Rounding off the Blues/Funk/Soul addition is  Taj Mahal's - Like Never Before - This was a favourite album when we lived in Taupo.  That was when Taj Mahal was spending a lot of time in NZ and Fiji (recording Just Juice ads) among other things.  We even met his daughter one night at the Suva Yacht club when we lived in Suva. It has some interesting reworkings of earlier songs he recorded and a great mix of funk, soul and blues.

New Addition - Jesse Malin - Sunset Kids - A welcome Return To Form

Like most people outside of New York I became aware of Jesse Malin with his first solo album the Ryan Adams produced The Fine Art of Self Destruction.  Following that album I dipped back into his back catalogue with bands Bellvue and D Generation, then followed him for a few albums with increasingly small returns.  Eventually more or less deciding not to get any more and started passing on sale bin CDs.

Las year I started to hear good things about his latest Lucinda William's produced Sunset Kids .  So it cropped up at a good price on Amazon so I thought - why not??

Glad I did - it's a solid album with a few standout tracks.  Malin can have an irritating vocal inflection but he keeps it pretty much in check on this outing.

It kicks off with the excellent Meet Me At the End of the World.  Just a great pop/rock song.

The second track,  Room 13, could have been lifted off Self Destruction - not a bad thing. Lucinda adds some nice harmonies as well. 

He keeps up the momentum with Chemical Heart  - Sounds like it could have been a 79 New Wave hit and the the video reminds me of videos by Costello and XTC.

The vibe is similar for most tracks but he switches from a new wave, Americana vibe to a gentle funk on Do you Really Wanna Know. 

So all in a all a solid album, a good listen and well recommended. 

Favourites : Freedy Johnston - Can You Fly

I have about 4 or 5 albums by Freedy (not Freddy) Johnston.  I bought most of them in the wake of Can You Fly and its follow up This Perfect World hoping that some of the magic  from those two would be recaptured.  Sadly while the later albums are solid they do not repeat the glories of these two.

I have already written about picking up This Perfect World in my blog on $1 bargain buys.  So I did not start in chronological order and back tracked to Can You Fly before moving forward.  I was then delighted a few years ago when I then found a vinyl copy of Can You Fly second hand.

These two are two of my favourite albums from the 1990s.  While presented almost as gentle easy listening music they are anything but easy listens.    The lyrics are complex and at times chilling and you get the impression things are never quite what they seem.

Can you Fly opens with Trying to Tell You I Don't Know with the opening line  "Well I sold the dirt to feed the band", apparently a reference to the fact he traded in an inheritance of a farm in Kansas to follow his dream and fund his band.

Lucky One is the story of a compulsive gambler - who just knows the next $ will be the one that makes the millions.

The Mortician's Daughter presents some interesting images of precocious love. 

I used to love the mortician daughter

we drew our hearts on the dusty coffin lids

The album closes with We will shine a song that seems simple enough, strapping on your glad rags and going out on the town with your girl.  But as is usual with Freedy there is a catch - a seemingly throwaway line that leaves you wondering.....Is he just trying to cheer her up or is there something else going on.

I brought you here - but you don't complain

And I find you crying,  on your birthday

Dip your toes into some Freedy - you wont be disappointed.